Chip Kelly picks four from Pac-12

The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed eight new players to the team via the 2013 NFL draft. Half of them are from the Pac-12. And new Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly -- as one or two of you might have heard -- is formerly of Oregon. Kelly insisted this wasn't the game plan going in.

Kelly

"It wasn't certainly by design," he said after the draft. "Now, when people look back at the draft and try to analyze it and try to see how it happened -- I think it kind of just happened."

Kelly and Co. drafted Stanford tight end Zach Ertz in the second round, USC quarterback Matt Barkley in the fourth round, Utah defensive end Joe Kruger in the seventh, and Oregon State defensive back Jordan Poyer in the seventh.

Kelly's Ducks beat Utah 31-24 in his first season as Oregon's head coach -- a four-year span in which he went to four-straight BCS Bowl games, won three Pac-12 titles and compiled a 46-7 record. Kruger wasn't part of that Utah team. But Kelly saw plenty of Barkley, Ertz and Poyer. Plus he saw LSU defensive tackle Bennie Logan when the Tigers topped the Ducks in the 2011 opener in Arlington, Texas.

Design or not, these are players that Kelly is extremely familiar with. And it's human nature to go with what you know. Probably not by coincidence, three of the new Eagles were on the field to hand Kelly three of his seven career losses at Oregon.

Here's a look at the new Eagles and their history against Kelly.

Zach Ertz, Stanford, TE (3rd pick of 2nd round, 35th overall)

2012: 11 catches, 106 yards, one touchdown in Stanford's 17-14 win at Oregon. Ertz hauled in the controversial game-tying catch with 1:35 in the fourth quarter that sent the game to overtime.

2011: Did not play because of an injury suffered two weeks earlier against USC. Oregon won 53-30 at Stanford Stadium.

2010: 1 catch for three yards in Oregon's 52-31 win at Autzen Stadium.

Career (two games): 12 catches, 109 yards, 1 touchdown.

Kelly quote: "[Stanford] used him in a multiple variety. They used him as a single receiver on the trips set. He was by himself isolated on the DB. They used him as a tight end. They used him as a H-back. They used him as a move guy. They used him all over the place. You couldn't isolate him in one certain spot."

Bennie Logan, LSU, DT (5th pick of the 3rd round, 67th overall).

2011: Posted four tackles, 1 solo, and a pass breakup in a 40-27 win against Oregon.

Matt Barkley, USC, QB (1st pick of the 4th round, 98th overall)

2012: 35 of 54 for 484 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions in Oregon's 62-51 win in Los Angeles.

2011: 26 of 24 for 323 yards, four touchdowns, one interception in USC's 38-35 win at Oregon. This ended a 21-game winning streak for Oregon at Autzen Stadium, and a 19-game conference winning streak.

2010: 26 of 49 for 264 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions in Oregon's 53-32 win in Los Angeles.

2009: 21 of 38 for 187 yards, two touchdowns, one interception in Oregon's 47-20 win at Oregon.

Kelly quote, via the Philadelphia Inquirer: “We had Matt rated as one of the top 50 players in this draft. The fact that he was still there, we talked about all along that we were going to take value. And there was no better value than us to open up today and take Matt.”

2010: Four tackles, one solo, .5 tackles for a loss, one pass breakup in Oregon's 37-20 win at Oregon State.

2009: Played, but did not record any stats in Oregon's 37-33 win at Oregon.

Career (four games): 16 tackles, 11 solo, two pass breakups.

Kelly quote: "Jordan Poyer we made a mistake on -- we didn't offer him and Oregon State ended up taking him late. We should have taken him in hindsight. We knew he was a good football player. I wasn't the head coach at the time, but we knew we made a mistake. Hopefully I rectified that mistake."

When the Eagles met with Ertz prior to the draft, Kelly's first question was whether it was a catch.

"Of course it was a catch," Ertz said.

The debate didn't end there. Ertz sent Kelly a handwritten note after the meeting to thank the Eagles for taking the time to meet with him. At the end of the note, Ertz left a postscript that read, "It was a catch."

"At the end of the day, I wanted to remind him what happened when we played against him, and to make sure I got the last laugh," said Ertz.

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